Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Witcher” Season 4.
Having to replace your lead actor heading into a fourth season can be a daunting task, luckily for “The Witcher” the book it was adapting lent itself for a “seamless transition.”
It was announced as Season 3 premiered that star Henry Cavill was stepping away from playing Geralt of Rivia with Liam Hemsworth taking over. The fourth season of “The Witcher” adapts the book “Baptism of Fire” from the series by Andrzej Sapkowski, which finds the titular monster hunter at a crossroads and changing internally. For showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, Season 4’s story served as a “seamless transition” for Hemsworth.
“Not to quote the show too much, but I do think that’s where destiny plays a little bit of a role,” Schmidt Hissrich said. “Of course, we had no idea when we started the show what was going to happen. We’re so thrilled to have Liam, and I think it is just a stroke of good luck that Liam got to inhabit Geralt at a time where Geralt is becoming a new character as well.
She added: “I think that what Liam brings to Geralt is this depth of soul and there’s some vulnerability there. He’s able to be sort of more emotionally forthright without being weak. I think the story fits right along with that, because Geralt, obviously, is sort of at his lowest of lows. So to me, we sort of had that advantage in front of us so we took it.”
The latest season of Netflix’s fantasy hit found Geralt and Jaskier (Joey Batey) traveling across The Continent with an island of misfit toys-esque companions that include a deadly archer, a gnome, two dwarves and a mysterious healer played by Laurence Fishburne. Him and his Hanza stumble through multiple mishaps as the war between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms spirals. It forces them to grow closer and Geralt to realize his family — Yen (Anya Charlotra), Ciri (Freya Allan), and now this ragtag group — are the important things to fight for.
The finale finds the Hanza traveling up the Yaruga River until they come across the Northern Kingdoms fighting to hold a small bridge from being overtaken by Nilfgaardians. If the bridge is lost, soldiers will flood the North making the war all the harder for those kingdoms. Geralt and his band lend their aid — further cementing that The Witcher is willing to get involved to help people for the right reasons — and help the North hold the bridge. The Battle on the Bridge is a famous fight in the book series and Hissrich Schmidt knew on Day 1 of production they had to nail it.
“One of the first things that I’m always asked by our producers and by our heads of department is what my creative priorities are, and the Battle of the Bridge was the first one on the list. Meaning, no matter what else happens, no matter what else goes crazy, we have to do this and we have to own it, and we can’t skimp on it. It needs to be spectacular. It was quite a challenge, because, there’s some great behind-the-scenes work that show that we shot the bridge in a parking lot. It is a fully VFX environment. It is literally a bridge that’s in a parking lot. It was very tight. It was very tough to shoot. But to me, the fact that we all knew that this was something that we had to end the season on sort of joined us together.”
The showrunner added that the battle might be small is scope for the greater war, but it’s a big moment for Geralt: “It really becomes about this small piece of land and Geralt getting pulled into a fight that he doesn’t even necessarily want to be a part of at first, and then realizing he’s fighting for something greater. So I think that is is super important.”
All that goodwill on Geralt’s part gets him exactly what he wants right as he can’t have it. This season hammered home The Witcher’s series-long dream of wanting to be a white knight rather than a fear monster hunter. His actions during the Battle of the Bridge lead Queen Meve to knight him as a true knight of Rivia — making his faked Geralt of Rivia title official after all these years. Unfortunately, his mission to track down Ciri and Yen means Geralt won’t be able to enjoy achieving his dream — which Schmidt Hissrich found “heartbreaking.”
“It was very fun to go ‘We’re going to give him his ultimate dream, the thing that truly we’ve talked about since Season 1.’ ” she said. “We obviously see him in a flashback in Season 1, with his mother, determined to be a white knight. What better to do than to give it to him at a time where he knows he can’t truly accept it. I think that’s just heartbreaking, but also I think it’s really affirming for Geralt in terms of what’s important in his life at this point. His priorities have changed so much across these four seasons, and to know that he gets this thing, but without Ciri and Yen, it’s not worth anything to him.”
In a season of Geralt finding such firm footing within himself and his new priorities, him achieving his dream is not the only heartbreaking moment. Earlier in the season, far from where Geralt was traveling with the Hanza, his father-figure and Witcher teacher Vesemir (Kim Bodnia) is killed helping Yen fight Vilgefortz and his couped sorcerers from The Lodge. It is a death that will likely take fans of the books by surprise since the beloved character makes it through the original series.
Schmidt Hissrich knew it might rattle the fans but pointed out it isn’t the first time they’ve killed off characters unexpectedly and that his death fits Geralt’s larger arc.
“We have killed some controversial characters in the past, and we know that Vesemir has the potential to be that too,” she said. “I think for us, the death of Geralt’s father and the death of Geralt’s father when Geralt isn’t there, it’s in some ways, a rite of passage. When Geralt learns about Vesemir’s death, it’s at this place in his story where he is stepping into this mantle where he’s obviously willing to give up everything, even his greatest dream – to be a white knight.”
She finished: “He gets that, and he gives it up to save his daughter. I think to me, when you start to see as an adult, when you start to see your family change and evolve, you have to step up, and you have to sort of be empowered. To me, that is part of what this story served us.”
“The Witcher” Seasons 1-4 are now streaming on Netflix.
